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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27051952">Somewhere far, far away</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DecorDilemma/pseuds/DecorDilemma'>DecorDilemma</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MegaRod Week 2020 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers Animated (2007)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Meetings, Gen, Non-Graphic Description of Injury, meant to be pre-relationship but up to interpretation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:09:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,340</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27051952</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DecorDilemma/pseuds/DecorDilemma</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A dark closet, two enemies and a moment of peace.<br/>It doesn't go as expected.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>MegaRod Week 2020 [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1969036</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Megarod Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Somewhere far, far away</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was written for day 5 of the MegaRod Week, for the prompt Respite.<br/>Unlike the other fics I've written for the event, this one is set in a TFA AU.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I think it’s gone.” Rodimus whispered from somewhere to his right.</p>
<p>Megatron huffed a deprecating laugh and shifted in place. “Gone? It will return soon enough, with reinforcements.” The Prime was too naïve for his own good.</p>
<p>“Stop being so melodramatic.” The words were accompanied by a hard poke in his side that made Megatron wince.</p>
<p>He hissed, “Melodramatic? Remind me again whose fault it is that we’re stuck here in the first place.” He hoped his anger was enough to cover the static slipping into his voice.</p>
<p>“You alright, Megs?” No such luck.</p>
<p>When he failed to answer, Rodimus’s field gained a distinctly worried edge. Megatron contemplated the merits of lying, but the young Prime had proven himself annoyingly perceptive. A half-truth would have to suffice. “It’s nothing for you to worry about. My performance in battle has not been compromised.” The nickname wasn’t worth a mention. He knew a losing battle when he saw one.</p>
<p>Rodimus’s tone and field sharpened into a point. “I asked you if you’re alright, not whether you can rip a Quint apart.” As if on cue, the gash under his lower dorsal plate twinged again.</p>
<p>“It’s nothing,” he repeated.</p>
<p>He heard shuffling and a moment later the room lit up. “Let me see.” It wasn’t a request.</p>
<p>But Megatron’s attention was drawn to the light source. “Is that a glowing arrow?” He couldn’t quite keep the incredulousness from his voice.</p>
<p>Rodimus shrugged and lifted the arrow so Megatron could see it better. “It’s for search and rescue. Now turn so I can see where the problem is.”</p>
<p>Megatron sighed and let his own field open up to reflect the warning. “Don’t try anything.” Rodimus nodded, seemingly unperturbed by what must have felt like a storm descending on his fragile sensors. Either Megatron was losing his touch or the little Prime had met a Decepticon before.</p>
<p>He filed the information away and bent away from the wall, separating his dorsal plates enough for visual inspection.</p>
<p><em>Now</em> the Prime decided to react, by hissing static and flinching away, and Megatron chuckled. “You Autobots are far too easy to shock.”</p>
<p>To his credit, Rodimus recovered quickly and started prying at the plating, pulling on it to expose more of the injury. His movements were smooth and professional, but his vocalizer might as well have been made of sodium nitrate when he muttered, “And you Decepticons think you’re immune to rust.”</p>
<p>It stuck Megatron that had Rodimus spoken to him like that only a few cycles ago, he would have killed him for the offense. A part of him still wanted to straighten his back to crush his digits under his plating.</p>
<p>He kept still.</p>
<p>Rodimus’s skill with the bow was reason enough to keep him in one piece, at least for the time being. And perhaps some use could be made of him as a field medic, too.</p>
<p>A few kliks later, Rodimus stopped pulling his plating this way and that. “Okay. There’s some shrapnel in there that needs removing, and I’m also going to add some nanite gel on the wound,” he said while backing away to rummage around in his subspace.</p>
<p>Megatron raised an orbital ridge at the phrasing. “Don’t I get a say in this?”</p>
<p>Rodimus didn’t even glance his way, but his field flickered with traces of humor. “I need you functioning, so no. I wasn’t kidding about the rust.” Rodimus probably wanted him functioning well enough to ‘rip apart a Quint’, as he had so gracefully put it. And maybe he had a point. The closer he was to 100% efficiency, the lower their risk of being eaten by an alien monster. Also, now that he was paying attention, the pain receptors around the wound were sending more data to his processor. It was quite distracting.</p>
<p>“Fair enough, I suppose.”</p>
<p>Rodimus beamed as if he had won a great argument. “Good. Then lie down like a good evil Deception.”</p>
<p>“That doesn’t even make any sense,” he complained, but settled down on his front and took a better look around the small—storage closet? Habsuite? Quintesson architecture was perplexing.</p>
<p>Rodimus ignored the comment and patted his thigh. “I don’t have any pain patches on me, so this is gonna sting. Sorry about that.”</p>
<p>Megatron ex-vented, the intensifying pain signals making him impatient. “Get on with it.” The glyphs came out in a growl and he thought he saw Rodimus twitch in his peripheral vision. Well, well. Not so fearless after all.</p>
<p>As Rodimus leaned down, Megatron tilted his helm to better watch the operation, but he couldn’t see what Rodimus was doing to the wound. Thankfully, his pressure sensors still worked in the area.</p>
<p>Rodimus’s servos were gentle as he worked, picking out pieces of plastic one by one with micro-transformed pincers. As he had warned, the pain got briefly worse when he pushed deeper into the wound to get at the last few, but Rodimus made no unnecessary movements and was soon opening a nanite gel packet.</p>
<p>“Must be easy, being an Autobot.” Megatron muttered while Rodimus was checking the contents.</p>
<p>“Huh?” Rodimus startled, almost dropping the packet.</p>
<p>He hummed a neutral, low frequency note. “You’re so small, able to reach into all the tiny places. Fix the problem.” He wasn't sure what he was trying to say. Maybe the pain was getting to him.</p>
<p>Rodimus looked him in the optic. “Well, yeah. But the gaps in my armor are way smaller than yours. If it was me or another Autobot hurt like that, I couldn’t do anything. It’s all relative.”</p>
<p>Megatron smirked as something in his spark lightened. “Then it’s good that we got stuck together, isn’t it?” He meant it as a joke, but he truly could have thought of many worse companions, even from his own ranks.</p>
<p>“Shut up or I’ll stick an arrow in that wound.” Rodimus laughed and shook his helm. </p>
<p>“Try it and lose your digits.” The smile on his faceplate was there to stay.</p>
<p>Rodimus checked the packet once more before reaching back in between Megatron’s plating. Even with Rodimus’s small size, it took him a while to spread the nanite gel where he wanted in a thick enough layer for it to matter. When he finally pulled back and leaned against the wall, Megatron pushed himself up onto his forearms with slow movements. It caused no additional pain, so he moved onto his knees, and then gradually back to sit down next to Rodimus. The Prime followed his movements with a keen optic, gave a satisfied nod, and in the next moment they were back in the dark. </p>
<p>The wound still hurt, but now that it was clean and covered in nanites, Megatron was certain it would heal. He let his plating relax so that his protoform had less strain on it. Flatline had claimed it made the nanites work faster, but he still had his doubts.</p>
<p>A while later, Rodimus asked, “So, how long do you figure until the Quint comes back?”</p>
<p>“Who’s the melodramatic one now?” Megatron had been halfway to recharge, but of course the Prime wanted to chat some more.</p>
<p>“Hey! I resemble that remark!” His field splashed against Megatron’s in faked anger.</p>
<p>“You do indeed.” He wasn't nearly as irritated by the demands on his attention as he would have thought.</p>
<p>Rodimus ex-vented. “You’re rude, you know that?”</p>
<p>“And you’re the politest Prime I’ve met.”</p>
<p>“Uh… Thanks?” Rodimus’s voice was wary and his field pulsed with disbelief. Megatron would have paid to see his expression.</p>
<p>“It’s not a compliment.”</p>
<p>“I know.” The resigned tone almost made Megatron want to ask about the other Primes. They were still technically at war, though, and Rodimus was unlikely to answer.</p>
<p>They fell silent for long kliks, calibrating their audials to catch sounds from further away on the ship. Instead of trying to return to recharge, Megatron lowered the volume on his vocalizer to a safe level and said, “…A cycle, at most.”</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Until the Quintesson returns. With reinforcements.”</p>
<p>Rodimus groaned.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And then they spend the next several months destroying corkscrew ships as a team and grow ~closer.~</p>
<p>So, in this AU nothing happens on Earth, Rodimus doesn't nearly get killed, the Quintessons attack and the Decepticons and Autobots institute an unofficial truce. <br/>May or may not result in Ultra Magnus dying and Megatron being wed to the new Magnus to cement the peace. :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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